Saint Augustine. Bishop. Confessor. Doctor Of The Church. Feast Day 28 August.

Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless stated otherwise.

Saint Augustine.
   Bishop.
   Confessor.
   Doctor Of The Church.
   Feast Day 28 August.

Double.

White Vestments.

Saint Augustine of Hippo.

Illustration: FRANCISCAN MEDIA

Augustine was born in 354 A.D., at Tagasta, near Algiers, Algeria. His mother, Saint Monica, taught him early to Pray. Although he had received with delight her Holy Teaching, he went headlong into the gravest disorders.

Carthage, North Africa, not offering him a theatre worthy of his genius, he went to Rome and obtained the post of Master of Rhetoric at Milan, North Italy. "My iniquities," he confesses, "were like a snowball growing in size as it rolls." His desolate mother Prayed to God incessantly with tears, still following the steps of her son.

Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, received him kindly and enlightened him in Divine Knowledge. One day, inspired by Heaven, he opened the Epistles of Saint Paul and read: "Wallow not in debauchery and impurity; but clothe yourselves in Our Lord Jesus Christ." His irresolution immediately ceased and, at thirty-three years of age, on Easter Eve, 387 A.D., he was Baptised.

Seven months after this great happiness, Saint Monica died, asking her son to "remember her at The Altar of God". Augustine, becoming a Priest, offered The Holy Sacrifice for her. "Lord," he often said, "have mercy on my mother; she was good, she pardoned easily, pardon her also her sins."

Made Bishop of Hippo [Editor: In modern-day Algeria], at the age of forty-one, in 395 A.D. (Alleluia, Communion), he began from that moment to live Canonically, that is to say, in Common with his Clerks. [The word Canon (Canonicus), derived from Kanon, in the sense of a List of Clerks attached to a Church, with a Stipend for their subsistence. To live Canonically, was to live in Common. Later on, it meant to lead a Regular Life, under a Rule.]

This Community gave Bishops and Priests to many Churches, and thus The Institute of Saint Augustine spread little by little in Africa and, more specially, in Gaul [France]. The Rule of Saint Augustine, which makes him one of The Four Great Founders of Religious Orders [The Benedictine Order, The Franciscan Order, The Augustinian Order, The Dominican Order], is drawn from the 211th Epistle, which he wrote for Nuns, and which, later on, was adapted for men.

[NOTE: These details appeared in the 1945 Edition of The Saint Andrew Daily Missal. The best-known Augustinian Orders are: The Canons Regular of Saint Augustine and The Hermits of Saint Augustine. The Canons Founded many Congregations; that of Windeshem, with the Mystic Writers John Ruysbroeck and Thomas a Kempis; The Lateran Congregation, which has Monasteries in England, France, Belgium, and America. The Hermits have now, in Europe, Mexico, and The Philippine Islands, more than sixty Monasteries, 280 Mission Stations, with more than 2,000 Members.]

Owing to the sublimity of his knowledge, and the ardour of his love, this Saint was also one of The Four Great Doctors of The West [Editor: Saint Augustine; Saint Gregory the Great; Saint Jerome; Saint Ambrose].

He died in 430 A.D., after an Episcopate of thirty-six years, reciting The Penitential Psalms.

Mass: In médio.
Commemoration: Saint Hermes, from The Collects of Mass: Lætábitur.

The Four Great Doctors of The Church, represented

with attributes of The Four Evangelists:

Saint Augustine, with an Eagle;

Saint Gregory the Great, with a Bull;

Saint Jerome (Hieronymus), with an Angel;

Saint Ambrose, with a Winged Lion.

Artist: Pier Francesco Sacchi (circa 1485–1528).

Date: 1516.

Current location: Louvre Museum, Paris, France

Source/Photographer: Uploaded by Twice25, 9 April 2008.

(Wikimedia Commons)